


Old Ways

by DemiurgicDabbling



Series: The Stagnant City [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Emotional Manipulation, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 09:31:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21097250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemiurgicDabbling/pseuds/DemiurgicDabbling
Summary: Who they were was written in stone, but sometimes the picture in the mirror isn't as clear. But Seth didn't worry about that. No, never. He left worry to his love, his soul mate. Gyrrus would accept no less.





	Old Ways

**Author's Note:**

> A piece I wrote trying to establish my characters better. Feedback appreciated!

Gyrrus liked things in a certain way. He was the strict sort, and for a long time, Seth didn’t see a problem with that. It was nice to never have to worry about specifics, or bother himself with all the same duties that his swain dealt with. Overseeing the Church, the city, the Tree, the Fruities, the Creeps… It all seemed terribly dull to him.

“I’m home, Seth.”

Seth looked up from his book, golden gaze cast over at the doorway and over the visage of a tall, princely man. Stately, pristine, his white cassock still pressed and clean, his wavy blonde hair still combed. It honestly never seemed as if the man knew disorder or dishevelment in any sense.

“How was your day?”

Gyrrus toed off his boots, and put on a pair of simple house slippers as he reached up to undo the first few buttons of his garb. His cincutre already hung from his arm, limp gold fabric shining in the fire light.

“Productive. I met with Mayor Abidan and discussed some of the matters of the city and church together. He’s agreed to help fund our little pest control problem.”

“That’s still going on?” Seth’s lips pulled up into a grimace, then he clapped his book shut with a sound of finality. 

“The Encrochen only become more numerous as the days pass.”

“Creeps.”

Turning his gaze on him, Gyrrus’s brows rose.

“Excuse me?”

“Creeps. Most people call them Creeps, Dear.”

Gyrrus only studied him a moment longer before blowing a huff from his nose, “Most people would be wrong then. It’s a slang name.”

“Is it really, though?” Seth asked him, sitting up and twirling a piece of his long, silver hair between his thumb and forefinger. “Most people know them by the name Creeps now. How many times today have you had give you sideways looks when you told them you were at Abidan’s office for the Encrochen?”

The taller man didn’t answer, and merely came further into their home. From the folds of his cinture, he pulled out a book embossed with a familiar sign. Curling and wrapping around the point where two lines intersected, and became one.

“You brought the Commencement with you?”

“Yes. I found something in Jedediah 6:13 that I thought might interest you.”

Seth perked up at that, sitting up again in his seat as Gyrrus joined him, taking at seat on the cushion right next to him. Peering over his shoulder, Seth’s eyes roamed the pages, skirting over passages upon passages of, sorry dear, jargon he didn’t entirely understand. 

But in the middle, laid a picture of the two original Children. Their bodies brought together, becoming one, entangled in vines as the great Tree sprung forth from their roots. Seth knew this part of the Commencement quite well, at least from how Gyrrus explained it. The book was in their age-old tongue, and some words still escaped him.

“It’s… Jedediah 6:13. What am I… What am I supposed to be seeing here?”

Gyrrus tapped one gloved index finger on the page, drawing Seth’s attention to one of the two children. Him, essentially, as the body of Sethealos. A hard name to pronounce, he’d thought, but that wasn’t the point. It didn’t pop out at him at first.

Gold eyes, silver hair, pages dirtied by age and use. He reached up to run his fingers through his own hair, trying to put the pieces together, before he caught the end of his hair.

“His hair was longer than mine.”

“That’s right. Your hair was longer, back then. I think you should grow it out.”

Seth tipped his head just so, trying to lean over and get a look at the taller man’s face. “Why? Just so I could look more like some stupid--”

“Yourself. So you could look more like yourself.”

The words were biting and direct, enough to silence Seth immediately. He sat there a moment, lips parted in questioning before falling closed once more. His brows pinched. 

“Is he really me?”

Gyrrus turned his head, just enough that Seth could finally see his face, to trace the line of his lips with his eyes, up his jaw line, cheek bones, and nose, right to his own golden gaze. He shut the book, and set it down on the table. Then, he reached back, drawing just the tips of his cool fingers under his love’s jawline. So light, it brought shivers down Seth’s spine.

“Did you finish your studies for the day?”

Swallowing, Seth nodded. “Yeah. I read Chapter thirty-five and I started thirty-six. ‘Cuz I was hoping we could spend a little time together tonight.”

Gyrrus turned to better face the shorter man, resting his back against the sofa arm. Dragging down on just a bit on his lower lip, Seth could smell the incense cloying to his skin. It reminded him of burnt sugar. Perhaps that was his skin tone, darker than his own, even darker than his blonde hair.

He drew him in, tasting the faint, lingering wine on his lips. A single, brief brush of their lips, and he was finished. 

“I have another busy day tomorrow, Seth. Finish your next chapter tonight, and I’ll see what I can do.”

Fingers digging into his own shirt, his heart thumped against his ribs. His face was warm. 

“Y-yeah… Yeah, that seems fair.”

Gyrrus stood up, and Seth caught the slight curling of a smile on those lips. He spoke up again, before he could stop himself. 

“I’ll grow my hair out, too. That’ll make you happy, right?”

An air of surprise registered in the other man, and even Seth could feel it. He wondered if he’d made the right choice, and as Gyrrus turned around, his smile felt like light and warmth. 

“Yes. That would make me very happy, my Inamorato.”

Inamorato. It was an old, old word that Seth thought was out of date. But the way Gyrrus said it, tone rolling and embracing every syllable, that maybe it wasn’t so bad.

Gyrrus liked things a certain way. He was the strict sort, and for a long time, Seth didn’t see a problem with that. But now, he questioned it. He wondered, and he thought, then he thought again. But Gyrrus had this habit of making him forget. Perhaps that wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t like Gyrrus was asking much of him.


End file.
